Update, kinda

Sorry friends! Its been a busy week of bug catching, ant surveys, trivia and a weekend trip to Austin. Big news this week! We've released our last brood boxed prairie chicken this morning. The hen was especially skittish and would regularly hit her head on the wooden top part of the brood box. She had actually gashed the top of her head and had to get medical attention by Dr. Morrow- he used super glue and bandage to fix it up. The original release date was supposed to be the Friday before Memorial Day weekend but we did it a day earlier. Most of the chicks were around the release weight (50-35 grams). Because it was the last brood box we are officially done with collecting bugs and buying crickets! The refuge is closed on Monday for Memorial Day so I'll be going to Austin for the 3day weekend.

at the crawfish boil

Update: From Abe, the TPWD videographer used a small mounted camera placed in the brood box to capture footage of prairie chicks and mother hen feeding and hanging out.
check it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-36kmRUbg_I

crawfish!

yes, we played pong

shooting bows- how i got my bruise

cool moth by the office

A beautiful day on the prairie

bending back the fencing

opening the brood box- releasing the chicks

mother hen and her chicks

snapshots

I have to elaborate more on some of these pictures. Last Tuesday Abe, a videographer from the Texas Parks and Wildlife show came to the refuge to film us. He came once before during booming season to film the males perform their courtship ritual and to film us building nest fences. This time around we had little prairie chicks. Abe videotaped us measuring, weighing prairie chicks and moving their brood boxes. Later that day he followed Matt and I during one of our bug collecting run where he asked us questions about our job and how we felt about it. I was very nervous about having a camera almost 6 inches from my face and being asked prairie chicken questions. 

Light, camera, chickens!

The Polaris and the bug collectors (Thing #1 and Thing #2)

The insect collectors. Everyday we take the Polaris ATV and hitch it onto the two bug collectors. The collectors are supposed to be used for collecting grass seeds but we've converted it for insects. The rotating brushes of the collectors sweep up insects from high grass. We sweep everyday in a low lying marsh regions that has yielded good insect numbers. With 4 brood boxes we need to collect about 35 bags of insects everyday. Each bag must contain about 200 insects each. Thats about 7000 insects that we mush find everyday! We also give a couple of bags of store bought crickets to supplement their diet. These are very hungry chicks!

Bag of collected insects-will later be fed to chicks

Baby prairie chickens!

Every two days we go out to the brood boxes in the morning to take a count, weigh and move brood boxes for the chicks. The goal in brood boxing the hen and her chicks and feeding them insects everyday is to get them to an appropriate weight before we release them into the wild. Newborn chicks weight about 17-20 grams at hatch. Within the two weeks that we brood box and feed them they must gain about 30 grams to stand a good chance of survival after release. Every time we weight them we are looking for a 10% gain. So far only some of these chicks are gaining the appropriate weight, most of them are underweight so we've upped the insects for a couple of brood boxes. We release our first two brood boxed (22) chicks this Monday!

Who can resist?

Awwwz

prairie chicken babies!

Today was the first time I saw the little prairie chicks in the brood boxes. We have been feeding them for almost half a week and went out this morning to weigh and count all of them. We first caught the hen- weighed and kept her in a wooden box. We then stuck our head in the brood box and rounded up all of the little chicks. They were very fast and excellent hiders. We counted and measured the baby chicks to see how they were doing on our insect diet. After weighing them we moved and cleaned their brood boxes, and fed them more collected insects and crickets. The baby chicks peeped quietly throughout this entire process. They were unbelievably cute and adorable. I could've stayed and watched them eat insects all day.

weighing momma hen

baby chicks! in a pillowcase

eggs

good news and bad news on prairie chick hatching

First, the good news! There are three nests whose eggs have already hatched. There is not an exact count on how many new prairie chickens we have added to our APCNWR family but I would estimate at least 20 chicks. The chicks that have hatched so far will not be brood boxed. The fencing surrounding the hen and her newborn chicks are opened and the brood is allowed to leave to catch insects on their own. However because of circumstance we are going out tonight to place a large mesh box on top of 2 nesting hens and their eggs. These hens and chicks will be fed insects and seeds regularly in their brood box for a couple of weeks. I was able to go into a fence and take a picture of a prairie chick. note: I had to take the picture from far away, there was only one chick out from under its mother- i circled it.

 

Prairie chick-a couple of days old!

 Now some unfortunate news... Upon inspecting another nest, Mike found an egg that had partially hatched but was quickly invaded by fire ants. All but one other egg from the same nest had hatched. The mother and the other successfully hatched chick had moved out of the fenced-in area. We brought the partially hatched egg to the truck and decided to open it. The chick was still barely alive and had severe wounds from the fire ants. I counted at least 10 ants outside and inside the egg. I held the little chick in front of the warm heater vent through the entire 25 min ride back to headquarters. We placed the chick inside the egg incubator and I brought it back to my house. It is very weak. I am responsible for keeping the incubator at a temperature of about 90-95 degrees overnight.

Hatched eggs

partially cracked-ants crawling out

opening the egg- more ants

poor little prairie chick :(

holding it in front of the heater for warmth

the incubator

ant surveying

counting ants

Red Imported Fire Ants (RIFA) or S. invicta

Bleu cheese ants (they smell like bleu cheese, tastes kinda minty- i tried)

morning

best.kolaches.ever. here

blooming cactus

mantis

This week was the first week and start of our ant survey as part of a scientific project to determine the impact of red imported fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) on Prairie chickens. We went out and using a sweep net, collected insects and laid out hot dog bait to survey ant species and population. In total we had 42 points in pasture sites treated with fire ant poison (Fall 2009, 2010) and a control site which was never treated. The data has not been analyzed yet but we did see a difference in the number of ants in the treated sites compared to the controlled area. We went to work at 6am wednesday to drive about two hours to Goliad county. There is an agreement that USFW has with the landowner there. There is a population of about 26 chickens on site. We drove around in ATVs and helped a field tech person survey for ants and collect insects. It was a very long (13 hr), very hot day but it was an interesting field trip. This site had one of the last remaining wild prairie chickens before they were captured and bred in captivity. It was interesting to see the ecological difference between the APCNWR and the Goliad/Refugio county sites.